Attention, please! Structural influences on tabloidization of campaign coverage in German and Austrian elite newspapers (1949–2009)

Abstract

The term tabloidization describes the spillover of tabloid journalism’s characteristics – which aim to attract recipients’ attention – to other media types, particularly elite media. The validity of the common assumption that tabloidization has increased over the last decades is unknown since long-term studies are widely lacking. Applying a most similar systems design, the current study pursues several goals: On the macro-level, it aims to clarify whether campaign coverage of seven German and Austrian elite newspapers has become more tabloidized over six decades (1949–2009) and whether the long-term developments are related to three structural drivers of tabloidization – tabloid newspapers, commercial television, and the Internet. On the meso-level, the study investigates among outlet differences in tabloidization. Tabloidization is conceptualized as multidimensional, considering the topic, focus, and style dimension. The results show that tabloidization in general and in the single newspapers has increased, but only slightly and only in a few respects. While some of the hypothesized structural influences on tabloidization are confirmed, other, more situative drivers of tabloidization seem to account for short-term ups and downs in levels of tabloidization.